As I said
earlier this week, one of my favorite aspects
of San Diego Comic Con is all the cool little companies that are there.
I've covered a few of the products from the small start up Spy Monkey
before, but it was great to meet them in person and see some of their
upcoming plans.

They had a cool figure there in their Weaponeers
of Monkaa series, a dude in tightie whities and an animal skin cape.
Around my house we call that Saturday night.

This is the
Monkaarian Lord of War, and like other Weaponeers he comes with a
variety of plug and play accessories that can be used as heads, hands,
weapons, decorations, etc. This set came as a bagged figure, plus a
baggie of extras that makes him the most dangerous Lord of War.

Packaging - **1/2
These are simply bags, although they are very sturdy, and very thick.
No worries about them breaking open and losing anything, and they did
include an nifty card insert with the cape and extras.

Sculpting - ****
Like the first wave of
Weaponeers, the overall design is very creative, very
interesting, and very functional with lots of play value.

My
favorite aspect is the swappable parts. Everything you see is swappable
- the figure can be broken down into its components, and others put in.
You can get as creative - or not - as you'd like, making these figures
really your own.

For example, this figure
includes several white 'heads'
that also can be used as hands, or weapons, or...whatever you might
come up with!

The smaller parts can be swapped
too, like the center chest piece, with pieces from other Weaponeers
figures.

The
figure stands about 4" tall, but he's much bulkier than the usual 4"
figure, taking up a lot more volume. He stands great on his own,
although the limited articulation doesn't allow for too crazy of
stances.

Paint - ***
The paint work isn't sloppy, but there are some choices here that don't
work for me aesthetically.

While white is often the color
of good guys - just ask the Lone Ranger - it doesn't do a lot for me in
this context. The work on the heads is clean, and the white silver
combination isn't terrible, but I think other colors would look that
would work better.

That's particularly true with
the shorts, which really do look like underwear. He also has chest hair
(at least that's what it looks like to me), further cementing the
overall appearance of hanging out in his skivvies.

Articulation - ***1/2
There
are cut joints everywhere, where every piece connects. For example,
each leg has four cut joints alone! While a cut isn't the best joint
for a wide range of movement, they do work with the assembly/
disassembly process quite well.

Accessories - ***
The
base figure comes with a wide range of extras that can be swapped for
various parts, including heads, and the extra pack includes more
weapons and the very cool animal print cloth cape.

The cape looks
terrific, and fits over the neck post cleanly. The post isn't super
long though, so take a little care when swapping the heads.

Fun Factor - ****
With a
cool building feature and a terrific design, these are excellent toys.
Give these to some kids and you'll see just how foolish the concept is
that a toy must be licensed from a television show, movie or video game
to have any chance.

Value - **1/2
While the Weaponeers aren't cheap by any means, around twelve bucks is
a pretty decent deal these days for your average Weaponeer. There's a
lot of re-use of course, but there's enough extra here to make it
worthwhile.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing!

Overall - ***1/2
I'm a sucker for creative unlicensed figures like these. But stay tuned
- that 'unlicensed' thing might not last forever. When cool toys with a
transformers/robot feel to them come along, television and books are
rarely far behind.